A train ride through history

Saturday

Everything inside the four-car Amtrak Exhibit Train is designed to make train aficionados freak out.

"As you enter the train, we're basically taking you through history, starting with 1970," Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari said during a media tour Friday morning.

The Exhibit Train crew spent much of Friday preparing for private tours for attendees of the Preserve Iowa Summit. Free public tours will start today and continue Sunday. The train will remain parked at the Burlington Depot through the weekend, and members of the Friends of the Depot group were busy tidying up the train platform Friday morning in anticipation of visitors.

"The train just fits on this platform," Magliari said.

Visitors will be greeted by a female mannequin as they enter the first car, dressed in the fashion of the 1970s - including go-go boots. Behind her is a lighted display that details the history of Amtrak, starting with its founding in 1970. A miniature train protected by a cylindrical glass case is just a tiny example of how the Amtrak trains looked back then, and several more model trains serve as an example of Amtrak's evolution.

"We didn't own any equipment when we started. We had hand-me-down equipment from the CBandamp;Q and other railroads," Magliari said. "The trains were a rainbow of different colors and looks because we assembled what we had."

Fake food and vintage dishes from the 1970s provides visitors an idea of how much train dining has changed over the past 40 years, including the much lower menu prices.

The look of Amtrak trains was standardized by the 1980s, and in the '90s, the company began looking at higher speed equipment. In the Northeast, where new track is being built, Amtrak trains reach speeds of up to 150 mph.

"To do that, we don't use diesel locomotives. They're heavy, and they generate electricity themselves. Instead, we pull the electricity from these overhead wires," Magliari said while pointing to a section of wire hanging on the wall. "A lot of that overhead power comes from hydro."

Railroad spikes and traditional wooden ties also are a thing of the past, as demonstrated by the 140-pound chunk of railroad track on display. Heavy duty steel clips are used to hold the track, and the clips don't run the risk of working themselves out of the ground like railroad spikes often do.

Magliari said one of the most popular exhibits on the train is the horn section, where people can push buttons to hear the different train horns used through the 1970s. The noise is made through five connected horns of varying length, though the sounds coming from the displays are recorded. It took experimentation with three horn designs that blew varying notes before an official train horn sound was decided upon in 1976.

"All the railroads have unique sounds for their train horns. So when you hear the sound of the horn, you'll know it's our train and not somebody else's train," Magliari said.

An old-fashioned throttle and brake is another favorite exhibit, and there's even a button for distributing sand.

"The engineer can eject sand in front of the wheels to get some grip on the rail, because the rail itself is such a low friction way of moving," Magliari said.

Farther in, visitors can switch the lights on train signals from red to green, and each combination of lights has a distinct meaning.

"You can play with the signals like you're stopping the train," Magliari said.

The Exhibit Train, which consists of four cars built in the 1950s that later were renovated, was designed for Amtrak's 40th anniversary. The train made its way to Burlington thanks to the Friends of the Depot group.

"It's important for us to work with communities that want to develop their train stations," Magliari said.

He pointed out a train depot in Lawrence, Kan., is being renovated by the local community, much like Friends of the Depot hope to do in Burlington.

"Like the station here in Burlington, it is only staffed by volunteers," Magliari said.

Magliari wasn't the only Amtrak official in town, though. Patrick Kidd, who oversees the Amtrak Great American Stations Project and the newly established Amtrak history website, gave an hourlong presentation about preserving historic depots during the Preserve Iowa Summit. He talked in depth about more than a dozen depots that have been restored across the country, including the Santa Fe depot in Fort Madison. Kidd hopes the depot in Fort Madison will start receiving passengers soon, and he talked about how important depots are to every community.

"There's a strong cultural memory that goes along with our railroads," Kidd said.

The Exhibit Train will be open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. today and noon to 5 p.m. Sunday, and area military veterans will be the first invited onboard. The locomotives and the cars they pull commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Vietnam War and honors those who served.

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